Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541402
18 • THE ARTISAN WINTER 2026 PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL STUDIOS ON THE PROWL B Y A R J E N T U I T E N P R O S T H E T I C M A K E - U P D E S I G N E R WOLF MAN Main photo: Alexei Dmitriew applies make- up to David Corenswet as Superman. Insets, L-R: Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific; Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho; Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl; Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardener; and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luther. I had heard about the project floating around for a while—not knowing anything about it, I took a meeting with director Leigh Whannell. It instantly became clear to me that he was looking to do something very different than what we had seen before. He told me he wanted to approach the transformation like a disease: an infection of two anatomies trying to fuse, rather than a fantastical transformation we have seen so many times in the past. At first, I was on the fence: being a fan of the classic 1941 film and so many films that followed—especially in the '80s—I had to give it some thought. Leigh wanted this film to be more of a tragic telling with a modern twist of losing a loved one to a permanent, slowly evolving infection and fusion of wolf and man. In addition, he told me he wanted to show this transformation with practical make-up throughout the film. This is so rare, as the majority of films made today with this type of transformation tend to utilize large amounts of VFX. Leigh wanted to show the transformation in different stages using make-up only so that every time we see Blake (Christopher Abbott), we witness him slowly losing his humanity. Doing a film with this many make-ups required a very large build of many sculptures and molds, multiple wigs, and an enormous amount of lab work at my shop—but we had very little time due to the actors and writers strikes that were still active during this time. This meant we were not allowed to scan our lead actor or any other cast members in order to start our work, and this became very worrisome as I saw the weeks passing by and yet principal photography was not getting pushed. In addition to the five stages of looks we made for Christopher's character Blake, we also had to build the Grady Lovell wolf (Blake's father), as well as a fully transformed creature for the opening of the film in 1995 when we first meet Grady and young Blake who encounter the creature during their hunt. Unfortunately, the 1995 creature make-up was later cut from the film. It was a big undertaking in a very short period of time, basically building seven full character make-ups head to toe: from 6-piece head and face breakdowns to prosthetic chests, arms, hands and feet. It also included dental work, contact lenses, body & facial hairpieces that were punched and tied, in addition to pre-laid sets of body hair, and wig work. I had a great crew of 25 that worked incredibly hard to get it all done in time—I am very grateful for them. When designing Grady, I did passes with more hair after the initial make-up test as he'd been missing for much longer—but Leigh asked me to steer away from it as it quickly leaned into the fantastical. He basically said, "Whatever was done in the past, don't look at any of it." We also discussed the real-life possibility of an infection such as this having alopecia—a hormonal change/imbalance in dogs and wolves that causes them to lose their hair in patches. Leigh really wanted to keep things raw and grounded in reality this way. One of the main references we discussed was Cronenberg's The Fly (1986), in which two anatomies mix that don't quite go together— that of a man and a fly. I thought that was a really interesting take on the story, though I also knew that it would stir up conversation as it is such a departure from the wolf man creatures we have come to know over the years. If we had done more of a classic take, the headline would have been, "Why can't Hollywood do anything new?" The film was shot in rural locations around Wellington, NZ, which doubled for